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Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Lu Summers Quilt Improv

So today is my stop on the Lu SummersQuilt Improv book blog hop. You can follow the rest of the blog hop by going to this page here. I am so proud of Lu - although she is mad as a bag of spanners and talks pretty much ALL THE TIME WITHOUT DRAWING BREATH - she is from the UK, flying the flag for British quilt and fabric design. She is also kind, funny, friendly, cheeky and one of the most fun quilters I know. Her description of my (now late) Granny Smith as "ironically pear shaped" still makes me laugh out loud every time I think of it. Anyway, onto the book itself.

If you haven't seen this book, you need to get your hands on a copy. It is the most original, innovative and bright and fresh, modern improv quilt book I've seen. The quilts are uniquely and distinctively Lu's style. You'd think this kind of thing would be easy to do but I tried it once and what I made was rubbish and looked nothing like as stunning as the quilt in the picture below for example. With the help of this book, I'd do better next time, I'm sure of it.

Lu had this idea which her publishers loved which was to have all these little diagrams with arrows roaming around the page taking you from step to step - she said that's the way it works in her mind and she wanted to see it like that one the page.

For each project, there is one of these windows, "Make Me Key" which guides you on what you're concentrating on and featuring in that project - I don't know about you but my brain is wired for symmetry and traditional quilt patterns and I love that Lu shares her design process to help us to design like her.

And a positive bonus for this book is the incredible photography and unique quilt designs, photographed against the background of the farm where Lu lives. Where most quilt books follow the same basic layout and premise, Lu's is unique, creative, quirky and a lot of fun for anyone who wants to try some real improv piecing.

Of course I have a copy to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, leave a comment and, because I like to have a bit of a laugh - your comment can be anything at all as long as it has the word "Lu" in it. So you might comment: "I'd love to win such a LUcidly written book" or "I hope I get through the LUpehole and win this book". Anyway, I'm sure you will come up with much funnier stuff than that but don't stress - Mr Random will pick the winner a week from now so your comment doesn't need to make me laugh to win.

There’s no chance of this book getting a LUkewarm reception with so many people LUsting after it. It would be LUdicrous, if not verging on LUnacy, for me to visit a book shop during my LUnch hour and gLUmly LUg this book home when I may be LUcky and have the LUxury of having it delivered as a prize. I do hope I am not cLUtching at straws when I hope that by some fLUke of fortune my name is pLUcked from the deLUge of entries.

As I'm vaguely LU-cid today and I'm in the mad as a bag of spanners category with Lu, or as I prefer to say a sandwich short of LU-nch, I'd LU-rve to rehome a copy of improv. It's been on my wishLU-st for ages. Sorry ;))

I suppose if I were to really try and make you laugh I could write a comment that sounded like herself, you know, using bLUeish language but that could be quite LUde so I won't. Instead I shall simply say that you are all a bunch of LUnatics and that you all make me laugh.

I don't want to LU-se a chance to get this book. So with luck, fingers crossed and not too mant dashes to the Lu to fix nerves I am entering for a bit of improv quiLU- Ty fun that does not alLU me to spend my filthy LUcre. Mum I think this is heading tewards a top ten tenuous LU entry.

Your write up made me think of the children's rhyme "Skip, skip, skip to my Lu, Skip to my Lu, my darlin'" I'd love to be inc-LU-uded in the draw for a chance to win a copy of this great sounding book :)

I'm practically deLUsional envisioning this book landing on my doorstep! Thanks for the innovative comment request. Love your blog, Lynne/Lily...I shall be following from Massachusetts. Also thinking that the Fat Quarterly Retreat sounds like a great excuse to plan a visit to the UK!

my quilting life has been in a LUll lately so i would LUve to win this alLUring LUvely way to LUsen up my piecing! if i win this book i will hop and skip through the LUpines, LUse my fear of improv, and LUmp in some color theory on the way! i'd be a LUnatic for not trying to win this book. Even if i LUse, it's worth a try, just reading the comments cheered up my bLUes.